Park In-hwan (박인환), the new head of the Postal Service, set eliminating the organisation’s structural deficit as his top priority. He aims to change the business model through AX to address chronic losses.

Park said in his inauguration speech on Thursday that the postal business is seeing its deficit widen each year due to falling revenue from the development of IT and private-sector competition, along with a rigid cost structure. He said profit in financial services is stagnating due to a weak earnings base.

Park flagged specific process reforms. He said he will establish a strategy to innovate inefficiencies in each work process through an objective diagnosis and advice on the postal environment. He stressed that the postal business will expand services based on profitability by using the strengths of the post office network that reaches every corner of the country.

On financial services, he said the agency will raise profitability through product design that customers want and support for sales capabilities in the field, and expand profit by further advancing its asset management system.

Park plans to pursue AX alongside legal and institutional improvements to overhaul the organisation. He will 추진 an 'AX 2030 project', including building a parcel-centred logistics centre in the Seoul metropolitan area applying new AI technology and advancing the financial system based on generative AI.

To strengthen business capabilities, he will move to overhaul laws and systems to secure flexibility in the postal business, including pricing, finance, facility investment and entry into new businesses. Park said he will work to ensure legislation is enacted that includes covering deficits and reinvesting in facilities from financial profit.

The agency also plans to contribute to balanced regional development and strengthening the safety net for people’s basic lives. Park stressed that it will identify specialised services that closely support people’s daily lives and use post offices as a joint service window across ministries to reduce the national fiscal burden, building them into post offices that connect people’s happiness.

The Ministry of Science and ICT appointed Park on Wednesday. Park entered public service through the 40th administrative examination and served at the Postal Service as head of the insurance business group, chief of the management planning office and head of the postal business group.